The present invention relates to a power supply network apparatus for supplying electric power to electrical loads of an automobile.
Conventionally, a battery mounted on an automobile is usually disposed within an engine room. However, in recent years, in order to improve the distribution ratio of the weight between the front and rear portions of a vehicle or due to the reduction of a space of an engine room, some types of vehicles are arranged to dispose a battery at a portion other than an engine room, for example, a position within a trunk room, a portion beneath a rear seat or the like. In this case, since a starter motor, an alternator, relays and fuses for controlling loads of electrical equipments or the like are disposed within the engine room, such parts within the engine room are respectively connected to the battery through long and thick cables.
Since the distance from the trunk room or the portion beneath the rear seat to the engine room is long, there arises a problem in the prior art that the number of wires increases and the wire harness becomes thicker in the vehicle, which results in the increase of the weight of the vehicle and the degrade of a fuel cost.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a power supply network apparatus which can obviate the aforesaid problem of the prior art.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a power supply network apparatus which can reduce the number of wires and prevent the wire harness from being thicker even when a battery is disposed at a position away from an engine room such as a position within a trunk room, a position beneath a rear seat or the like.
(1) In order to attain the aforesaid object, the present invention is arranged in a manner that in a power supply network apparatus used in a vehicle in which a battery is mounted at a position away from an engine room, the power supply network apparatus includes
a plurality of power supply centers disposed dispersedly; and
a power bus for supplying electric power from the battery to a first one of the plurality of power supply centers and supplying electric power from the first one of the plurality of power supply centers to a second one of the plurality of power supply centers.
According to such a configuration, since the electric power is supplied through the power supply centers from the battery, the number of wires used in the vehicle can be reduced.
(2) In the aforesaid feature (1), preferably, a starter is supplied with electric power from one of the plurality of power supply centers which is near to the starter.
According to such a configuration, a wire harness can be prevented from being thicker in the vehicle.
(3) In the aforesaid feature (1), preferably, each of the plurality of power supply centers is formed by a control module having a semiconductor switching element serving as a load driving means and a relay block having a relay serving as a load driving means.
(4) In the aforesaid feature (3), preferably, the control module and the relay block of each of the plurality of power supply centers is connectable and separable to each other by means of a connector.
(5) In the aforesaid feature (3), preferably, the relay block includes a protection means for protecting a load at a time of short-circuit of the load and at a time where a power supply line to the load is short-circuited to ground.
(6) In the aforesaid feature (3), preferably, a driving signal is sent to the load driving means in a multiplexed communication mode.